STS-82 Liftoff Status Page

Shuttle Discovery Launch Status

Launch February 11, 1997 3:55:17 am. Window was 65 minutes.
The exact window was announced a few hours before launch and adjusted
at the T-9 minute mark based on the final computation of the location
of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). In Firing Room 3, of the
Launch Control Center (LCC), a final poll of the launch team and the
Mission Management Team was conducted and the countdown clock picked
up at the T-9 minute mark at 3:47am EST. The Orbiter Access Arm (OAA)
was retracted at T-7 minute 21 seconds (3:50am EST) and a go was
given for APU prestart at 3:50am EST. The APU's were started at the
T-5 minute mark and the flight crew reported 3 good APU's. Discovery's
aero surfaces were sequenced and the three Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME's)
were moved into launch position. Launch occured exactly on schedule.
Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB's) were seperated at 2 minutes 2 seconds with
Discovery at an altitude 35nm and a distance of 40 miles from launch site.

The launch countdown was conducted with minimal problems. Loading
of the cryogenic reactants into the external tank began at 8:30
p.m. EST on February 10, 1997. Tanking was delayed about 1 1/2 hours
in order to send a contingency team into the Mobile Launcher Platform
(MLP) at the pad to assess the integrity of the gaseous nitrogen purge
system. This was done as part of the troubleshooting effort to
understand why unusually high concentrations of oxygen were appearing
in the orbiter's payload bay. Once the team cleared the pad, tanking
commenced. The high readings of oxygen in the orbiter's midbody and
payload bay had stabilized but engineers continued to monitor them as
the countdown proceeded. Tanking started about 1.5 hours late and
engineers determined the excess oxygen in the payload bay was due to
trapped gas in the honeycomb structures of the payload bay. An earlier
concern with fuel cell No. 3 was cleared and the fuel cell was
operating properly. An additional check of the fuel cell's pH level
was taken at about T-3 hours before launch as a final confirmation.

The seven members of the STS-82 crew were awakened at 7:30 tonight
and departed the Operations and Checkout Building for the pad at about
12:31am. Milestones for launch day (Reference KSC Press Release
20-97) start the day with close-out preparations in the white room and
the checking of cockpit switch configurations. Then at about 1:01
a.m. EST, the Flight crew begins entry into the orbiter and the
atronauts perform air-to-ground voice checks with Launch Control and
Mission Control. At about 2:26 a.m., Discovery's crew hatch should
close and the Eastern Range begins final network open loop command
checks. Then the hatch is sealed and cabin leak checks performed.
Then white room is closed-out and the Close-out crew moves to fallback
area.

At L-1 day, Air Force weather forecasters indicated a 30 percent
probability of weather prohibiting launch on Tuesday. By launch day
that estimate was changed to 20 percent. A disturbance developing over
the South Central U.S. is expected to possibly increase cloudiness
through Monday. At launch time, the only concerns are for low and mid
level clouds. At launch time, the temperature at the pad is expected
to be about 56 degrees; relative humidity about 86 percent; clouds
scattered at 2,500 feet and 14,000 feet and broken at 25,000 feet; pad
winds from the northwest at 12-18 knots.

On Sunday, Febuary 9, 1997, Pad 39A was cleared early in the
morning to load the onboard cryogenic tanks with liquid hydrogen and
liquid oxygen reactants. Reactant loading was completed and off-load of
several hundred pounds of the cryogenics not required for this mission
continued through most of the day. The reactants provide electricity
for the orbiter and crew while in space and drinking water as a
by-product for the 10-day mission. At about 10 a.m. on 2/10/97, checks
of the fuel cells were done to evaluate the pH content of the water
by-product. Also, engineers evaluated higher than allowable oxygen
readings in the orbiter's midbody following cryogenic loading
today. (Reference KSC Shuttle Status 2/09/1997)

On Thursday, February 6, 1997, during aft close-out operations,
cycle tests on two aft engine compartment vent doors revealed an
intermittent failure of the doors to operate properly. Troubleshooting
of this problem concluded that the power drive unit (PDU) for the vent
doors had a bad circuit. Managers this afternoon decided to replace
the PDU. The additional work will delay aft close-outs but should
not impact launch on Tuesday. The aft doors are now scheduled to be
installed Saturday night. The countdown remains on schedule to begin
at 4 a.m. on February 8, 1997. (Reference KSC Shuttle Status 2/07/1997)

On 2/4/97, cryogenic servicing of the Near Infrared Camera and
Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) continued and the payload
end-to-end test began. Aft engine compartment close-outs continued and
the aft doors scheduled to be installed on Saturday (2/8/97). The crew
is scheduled to arrive at KSC Friday morning (2/7/97) and the
countdown is set to begin Saturday. (Reference KSC Shuttle Status 2/04/1997)

On 1/29/97, payloads were installed into the orbiter's payload
bay and space suits used for the mission were installed into the
orbiters airlock. This weekend, workers will remove and replace
the Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) nozzle plugs from the SRBs at the pad.
(Reference KSC Shuttle Status 1/29/1997)

On 1/17/97, Discovery began its journey from the VAB to the launch
pad shortly after 7 a.m. Rollout was stopped at approximately 8:25
a.m. after engineers heard a "load band" and noticed that a crack had
developed on deck plating of MLP-1. The 24-foot long "Y"-shaped crack
is on the surface of the MLP and runs from near the left hand SRB
flame hole toward the near corner of the MLP. Structural engineers
have determined the integrity of the MLP has not been compromised and
Discovery's trip to the launch pad resumed shortly after noon EST.
(Reference KSC Press Release 13-97)

STS-82 Movies and Images

Note:

The image on this page is from an NTSC video capture that is updated every minute from the T-5 hour mark on the countdown until launch. At all other times, the view is either connected to the NASA TV (NTV) feed (Click here for Video Advisories) or it is a static video capture of an Orbiter Television (OTV) camera that is updated a few times a day. If you have a WWW browser that caches images, you may need to select "Reload" periodically to see these images change. You may also want to look into getting your own live NASA Television Feed by loading CU-SeeMe on your system.